Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Mayhem]

Kingcreaky - nice job on the chuck. I use that method a lot and love it. It sure beats standing in front of a wire wheel. Nice use of the non-conductive brick!

Also there is no rush on any project here and we simply love seeing any progress. I'm still working on getting my lathe and mill fully finished and have had both for a good few years now. Keep up the good work.

aRM - the process is a simple one, involving a solution of soda ash (used to decrease the pH in swimming pools) a sacrificial anode and a battery charger. I use a 20L plastic container and lined it with some weldmesh. The process works by line of sight, so the more anodes you have (either linked or as on piece) the better the process works.

Place the positive lead to the anode and the negative lead to the part you want to clean. Ensure they are not touching and flick the switch. For most parts, I leave them in for 15 minutes at a time, cleaning them under hot running water with a stiff brush. Some parts take a few cycles. If I remember, I'll take some pictures of my set up. I am sure I have posted them on here before but cannot find them - probably buried somewhere in this thread!

[Hopefuldave]

Hi aRM, I'll give some details of my electrolysis setup in case you're interested?

Approx 18x24x12" heavy-duty watertight plastic crate ("stack and store" bins here in the UK), 30A start-and-charge battery charger (old style "dumb" transformer type, the "smart" chargers shut down if they don't see an attached battery), washing soda crystals (Proper Hardware Store) 1 or 2 cups / Imperial Gallon, arc gouging rods (most of the copper stripped off with ferric chloride, enough left to solder the +ve leads onto) as electrodes.
For separation / insulation the plastic grids you sit on sink drainers, thrown-away plastic vegetable crates (around the back of kitchens and supermarkets), spiral cable wrap for threading the electrodes inside e.g. motorbike petrol tanks.

I started out with sheet steel for the sacrificial electrodes, found it produces a really murky solution, lots of muck and "barnacles" on the steel that have to be scraped off to keep the process going, the carbon rods seem to be much cleaner (the solution stays pretty clear, no scraping the barnacles off them), work well in an anodising tank too :)

I attach the workpiece with the charger's -ve lead (and extra pieces with some improvised jumpers, big crocodile clip each end), the +ve goes to a piece of stranded/insulated copper wire soldered to each of the gouging rods in turn (these are held against the inside of the crate by the insulating material, connections above the waterline). mix and pour in the electrolyte (or vice versa), switch on battery charger (current's dependant on the surface area of work and electrode, I've seen 15-20A on many occasions) and go away for a day or three doing something else...

On returning, check all's nice and clean, quick scrub with a scotchbriite pad or similar to loosen any black oxide particles, dry and oil swiftly before it rusts up again :)

One warning - NEVER use stainless steel as the sacrificial anode, it makes SERIOUSLY unpleasand hexavalent chromium in the bath (proper toxic waste, regulated, Official Channels for disposal and all that)
Another warning - Iron/steel only, the bath can have bad effects on aluminium/brass/bronze etc., so stick to ferrous metals

[aRM]

(04-30-2015, 02:22 PM)Mayhem Wrote: aRM - the process is a simple one, involving a solution of soda ash (used to decrease the pH in swimming pools) a sacrificial anode and a battery charger.  I use a 20L plastic container and lined it with some weldmesh.  The process works by line of sight, so the more anodes you have (either linked or as on piece) the better the process works.

Place the positive lead to the anode and the negative lead to the part you want to clean.  Ensure they are not touching and flick the switch.  For most parts, I leave them in for 15 minutes at a time, cleaning them under hot running water with a stiff brush.  Some parts take a few cycles.  If I remember, I'll take some pictures of my set up.  I am sure I have posted them on here before but cannot find them - probably buried somewhere in this thread!

So there definitely is some Order and semblance in all this "Mayhem", I'd say. ( just kidding, Mate !!)
Thanks for this.
Just one thing ........." the process works by line of sight" - sorry, am a bit lost here. OK, we accept simply, "the more the merrier" theory. Saw others prefer full flat metal Sheeting. We do have some heavy guage mesh and even plain Flat Sheeting ( non-galvanised ) which we could use, but seeing we are going to make this once, which would U recommend to be the better ??
aRM

[Mayhem]

Hi aRM the theory that you will read on almost all the web sites depicting this process is that the it doesn't work around corners!

Imagine the anode as a light source and the areas of the part on which the light shines will clean up and the parts in the shadows will not.

However, I have found that when placing a thread with a nut in situ, that the threads beneath the nut were also cleaned. I had expected to have to move the nut and repeat the process. To me this simply suggests that the more anodes or the larger the coverage of anodes the quicker the process takes place.

[aRM]

(05-01-2015, 02:31 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Hi aRM the theory is that the process doesn't work around corners.  Imagine the anode as a light source and the areas of the part on which the light shines will clean up and the parts in the shadows will not.

However, I have found that when placing a thread with a nut in situ, that the threads beneath the nut were also cleaned.  I had expected to have to move the nut and repeat the process.  

The more anodes or the larger the coverage of anodes the quicker the process appears to take place.

Thanks Guy
Much appreciated
Heck, what time is it there now ???
Don't U sleep at all ?? Indeed there's so much more to life than sleeping the hours away
Take care
aRM

[f350ca]

First day of sawing, needed a break from the processor. A neighbour brought me some Hemlock late last fall, more of it and some White pine to saw.


Some of the timbers for a green house, wood shed and gazebo.

[DaveH]

Nice, so you will be busy for the next couple of days then      
 
DaveH

[Dr Stan]

Also have nothing to show, but when I was mowing the yard with my Snapper 33" rider all of a sudden I had no control over the steering.  

Pushed it into the shop and raised the front end with my shop built mower lift and found the tear drop shaped piece welded to the end of the steering column that connected the tie rods had broken.  Pulled the steering column, removed the piece from the tie rods and re-welded it back on the column.  Added a gusset for strength then reinstalled everything.  Most likely a mower shop would have ordered the part (Snapper = $$$$$$$$$$$) and taken a couple of weeks.  I was back up and running in about an hour. 

[Sunset Machine]

That happened to me with an old truck I use as a trash hauler. Turned into the driveway and the steering wheel kept spinning. The truck seemed to know where it was going anyway, but still..

[aRM]

(04-30-2015, 06:56 PM)Hopefuldave Wrote: Hi aRM, I'll give some details of my electrolysis setup in case you're interested?

Approx 18x24x12" heavy-duty watertight plastic crate ("stack and store" bins here in the UK), 30A start-and-charge battery charger (old style "dumb" transformer type, the "smart" chargers shut down if they don't see an attached battery), washing soda crystals (Proper Hardware Store) 1 or 2 cups / Imperial Gallon, arc gouging rods (most of the copper stripped off with ferric chloride, enough left to solder the +ve leads onto) as electrodes.
For separation / insulation the plastic grids you sit on sink drainers, thrown-away plastic vegetable crates (around the back of kitchens and supermarkets), spiral cable wrap for threading the electrodes inside e.g. motorbike petrol tanks.

I started out with sheet steel for the sacrificial electrodes, found it produces a really murky solution, lots of muck and "barnacles" on the steel that have to be scraped off to keep the process going, the carbon rods seem to be much cleaner (the solution stays pretty clear, no scraping the barnacles off them), work well in an anodising tank too :)

I attach the workpiece with the charger's -ve lead (and extra pieces with some improvised jumpers, big crocodile clip each end), the +ve goes to a piece of stranded/insulated copper wire soldered to each of the gouging rods in turn (these are held against the inside of the crate by the insulating material, connections above the waterline). mix and pour in the electrolyte (or vice versa), switch on battery charger (current's dependant on the surface area of work and electrode, I've seen 15-20A on many occasions) and go away for a day or three doing something else...

On returning, check all's nice and clean, quick scrub with a scotchbriite pad or similar to loosen any black oxide particles, dry and oil swiftly before it rusts up again :)

One warning - NEVER use stainless steel as the sacrificial anode, it makes SERIOUSLY unpleasand hexavalent chromium in the bath (proper toxic waste, regulated, Official Channels for disposal and all that)
Another warning - Iron/steel only, the bath can have bad effects on aluminium/brass/bronze etc., so stick to ferrous metals

DAVE and MAYHEM
Regret we have to pick You Guys brains on this seemingly simple to do project.

Went out today to get the plastic container and the 12V Battery Charger and they have a simple unit for abouts four hundred Rand, Your +- $30-$35, which goes up to 12Volts max - no more. Then there was one at twice the Price to cope with huge Truck Batteries. At an Autozone we were offered a "professional" one which goes from 6 to 36 Volts for nearly THREE GRANDS !!!

Researching professor Google, we read a recommendation for one to get a 6-24 Volt supply Charger preferably with an Ammeter. We assume this Ammeter to be the thing-ma-a-jig with the Dial and readings on the face, which co-incidentally, the small 12V Charger had anyway ??

Now we did buy a 55 Litre ( about Your 12 Gallons ) heavy duty plastic Container and are worried that the small 12V max Battery Charger will be inadequate for this large-a-size Container !!! Are we reasoning correctly ???

What would U Guys recommend for the Charger ???
Do we get the Truck Battery Charger or the speciality item or do we purchase the small 12V Charger, which will suffice ??? Guess U Guys will appreciate that one would need de-Rust some parts once-off and not need repeat the process every day. So usage will be on occasional times.
Thanks in advance for Your kind inputs.
Warm regards
aRM